"No, no, no" I scream at the screen, as I unearth two listings on eBay this morning that are trying to claim that Michael Harris designed Swirl for Chance...

Heck, we've already had people trying to attribute the design of Swirl to Margaret Casson and Robert Goodden, both of which are inaccurate. Feel free to download p.86-87 from Chance Expressions, which are my findings on this enigmatic design.

Harris was 22 when Swirl was first announced in 1955, in preparation for the Spring Fairs of that year, so he would have have had to have designed it the year before. However, he was studying at the RCA at the time. I also spoke to Elizabeth, his widow, when writing Chance Expressions, and she was adamant that Calypto (1959) was his first design for Chance Brothers. Anemone was the last collaboration in 1965.

"The inspiration for the design could therefore quite possibly have been [Robert] Barrington's" is my conclusion.